Reasonable Expectations? (and general relo questions) (Denver, Colorado Springs: rentals, HOA, buying a house)
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Our family is considering relo'ing to CS this summer and are wondering if our expectations are reasonable or unrealistic. We'd love to get your opinions, if you'd be so kind.
We're hoping to find a 1500-2500ish sq ft for less than $250k in an area with good schools where it's safe for kiddos to play outside. We'd like to be in the north end of town/suburbs (are there actually suburbs there?) as it's an area we've been to more than once and just loved it.
We're coming from the Austin 'burbs and love it here, but the sheer mass of people moving here is not only driving up prices everywhere but really watering down/replacing what we love about Austin (nice people, good family values, creative energy, low-crime/laid back community). In general, Austin is becoming more about the frantic rat-race/keeping up with the Joneses and we want to downsize our life, slow down our pace and just be part of a community where family values and enjoying time with family and neighbors is more important than working 60 hours a week to pay for the (insert fancy car/house/boat/whatever).
The Cordera/Briargate area really appealed to us 8-10 years ago, but may be out of our price range these days. But we love those front porch communities with a quality, affordable HOA and amenities like playgrounds, pools, hiking trails etc.
TIA for your input, suggestions, insight and opinions.
Start with PPAR.COM. Click on "Search Properties" and select the criteria you want. You can zoom in or out on the map toward the bottom of the page and select the portion of the map in which you are interested.
But! Houses are currently selling very quickly, often for more than the listing price. Sometimes sight unseen. I am glad not to be shopping for a house in the Springs right now.
I'm guessing roughly 70-80% of Colorado Springs is "suburbs," for better or worse, and they keep creeping north and east for obvious geographic reasons. The answer "yes, maybe" is quite right. I'd personally not suggest buying a house on a short visit but instead move here (if you get a job yada yada) and rent for awhile. There are so many different neighborhoods and school districts it's very hard to get a feel for the different areas in a short trip. Some of our best friends (until they recently moved with college age kids to NYC) were basically told by their realtor 12+ years ago the only realistic place for them to look was in the Wolf Ranch new build area up north, which they liked at first, until they realized older areas of town they'd been led away from (by "well-meaning" realtor) were actually far more suitable to them. But by the time they realized they'd far prefer other older neighborhoods with a bit more "character" they'd bought their suburban house and housing prices were down and they were pretty well stuck. Moral of the story is to look before you leap and the only realistic way to look is to live here for a period of time before buying. If that's not an option, then just roll the dice on a neighborhood and hope it works out ... it probably will ... most neighborhoods that you'd realistically end up in are pretty darn nice. COS tends to be a good solid place, family friendly, really sensible option for folks beyond the "looking to hook up at clubs" 20-something years. Those people are typically bored out of their skulls here and move away, which is good.
My family lives in Skyway (School District 12). It's as close to the idyllic you describe as you can get with houses built in the 1950's and '60's, lots of "mid century modern" houses, some hip and restored, others pretty blocky, certainly not all cookie-cutter new build (not that there's anything wrong with that, other than the risk of shoddy construction. Old North End is great, but not likely for $250K. Maybe Patty Jewitt. So many neighborhoods you've never heard of until you've been here awhile. Good luck, and hope you come!
Start with PPAR.COM. Click on "Search Properties" and select the criteria you want. You can zoom in or out on the map toward the bottom of the page and select the portion of the map in which you are interested.
But! Houses are currently selling very quickly, often for more than the listing price. Sometimes sight unseen. I am glad not to be shopping for a house in the Springs right now.
Thanks for that link, we normally default to realtor.com so it's good to see a solid alternative.
Quote:
Originally Posted by smdensbcs
I'm guessing roughly 70-80% of Colorado Springs is "suburbs," for better or worse, and they keep creeping north and east for obvious geographic reasons. The answer "yes, maybe" is quite right. I'd personally not suggest buying a house on a short visit but instead move here (if you get a job yada yada) and rent for awhile. There are so many different neighborhoods and school districts it's very hard to get a feel for the different areas in a short trip. Some of our best friends (until they recently moved with college age kids to NYC) were basically told by their realtor 12+ years ago the only realistic place for them to look was in the Wolf Ranch new build area up north, which they liked at first, until they realized older areas of town they'd been led away from (by "well-meaning" realtor) were actually far more suitable to them. But by the time they realized they'd far prefer other older neighborhoods with a bit more "character" they'd bought their suburban house and housing prices were down and they were pretty well stuck. Moral of the story is to look before you leap and the only realistic way to look is to live here for a period of time before buying. If that's not an option, then just roll the dice on a neighborhood and hope it works out ... it probably will ... most neighborhoods that you'd realistically end up in are pretty darn nice. COS tends to be a good solid place, family friendly, really sensible option for folks beyond the "looking to hook up at clubs" 20-something years. Those people are typically bored out of their skulls here and move away, which is good.
My family lives in Skyway (School District 12). It's as close to the idyllic you describe as you can get with houses built in the 1950's and '60's, lots of "mid century modern" houses, some hip and restored, others pretty blocky, certainly not all cookie-cutter new build (not that there's anything wrong with that, other than the risk of shoddy construction. Old North End is great, but not likely for $250K. Maybe Patty Jewitt. So many neighborhoods you've never heard of until you've been here awhile. Good luck, and hope you come!
We definitely plan to rent first. We did that when we moved here and ended up buying in the general area we'd first targeted, but also discovered a lot of small, pocket neighborhoods here we would have loved also that you just would never know about without living here first.
And, neat mid-century modern? You're speaking our love language there. We've always dreamed of finding one of those and modernizing it bells & whistles-wise.
Colorado Springs has so many different kinds of neighborhoods that one can become overwhelmed by too much choice.
We considered a house in the foothills (Rockrimmon), a funky old house among the hippies (Manitou), a large lot in the forest (Black Forest), a new suburban tract home (Briargate), a house above the clouds (Woodland Park), and a cool older Victorian house among mature trees (North End of downtown).
With that much choice, it's hard to make a decision in a few days.
And, neat mid-century modern? You're speaking our love language there. We've always dreamed of finding one of those and modernizing it bells & whistles-wise.
See now, like our friends who got stuck in north El Paso County suburbia, you certainly wouldn't want to get all stuck on the idea of Cordera/Briargate or whatever without at least being aware there are other neighborhoods that speak your love language!
Our family is considering relo'ing to CS this summer and are wondering if our expectations are reasonable or unrealistic. We'd love to get your opinions, if you'd be so kind.
We're hoping to find a 1500-2500ish sq ft for less than $250k in an area with good schools where it's safe for kiddos to play outside. We'd like to be in the north end of town/suburbs (are there actually suburbs there?) as it's an area we've been to more than once and just loved it.
We're coming from the Austin 'burbs and love it here, but the sheer mass of people moving here is not only driving up prices everywhere but really watering down/replacing what we love about Austin (nice people, good family values, creative energy, low-crime/laid back community). In general, Austin is becoming more about the frantic rat-race/keeping up with the Joneses and we want to downsize our life, slow down our pace and just be part of a community where family values and enjoying time with family and neighbors is more important than working 60 hours a week to pay for the (insert fancy car/house/boat/whatever).
The Cordera/Briargate area really appealed to us 8-10 years ago, but may be out of our price range these days. But we love those front porch communities with a quality, affordable HOA and amenities like playgrounds, pools, hiking trails etc.
TIA for your input, suggestions, insight and opinions.
I think you'll love it here. Most folks here are great. We moved here from Atlanta 2.5 years ago for most of the same reasons you mentioned and love it. Of course though, we've now bought some land in Hartsel and are building out that ways for retirement plans. At any rate, you should be able to find something close to that range easily on the east side but north (we live near Briar Gate) is a bit more expensive but not far outside that range you mention.
Be aware that many people are moving here (and especially Denver) and the local govt has kept housing very tight. Some of that's been good (keep building from getting out of hand) and some of it bad (hard to find a place to rent at a reasonable price). You get a great mix of politics out this way compared to the South. There's a lot of conservatives here and a good bit of libs here as well. Everyone seems to be civil except during election years and is just live and let live for the most part.
Jobs are hard to come by here. Lucky for me I work in IT and work remotely for an office in Atlanta. But, other than those things, I think you'll like it here especially coming from Texas. Hope all goes well for you.
Colorado Springs has so many different kinds of neighborhoods that one can become overwhelmed by too much choice.
We considered a house in the foothills (Rockrimmon), a funky old house among the hippies (Manitou), a large lot in the forest (Black Forest), a new suburban tract home (Briargate), a house above the clouds (Woodland Park), and a cool older Victorian house among mature trees (North End of downtown).
With that much choice, it's hard to make a decision in a few days.
Rent first.
Yes, renting first is definitely a must - although we dread being out of a rising market for very long. Are there a [proliferation of short term rentals there or is it mostly 12 month leases?
Quote:
Originally Posted by smdensbcs
See now, like our friends who got stuck in north El Paso County suburbia, you certainly wouldn't want to get all stuck on the idea of Cordera/Briargate or whatever without at least being aware there are other neighborhoods that speak your love language!
No, being stuck is not box we want to check.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harlin
I think you'll love it here. Most folks here are great. We moved here from Atlanta 2.5 years ago for most of the same reasons you mentioned and love it. Of course though, we've now bought some land in Hartsel and are building out that ways for retirement plans. At any rate, you should be able to find something close to that range easily on the east side but north (we live near Briar Gate) is a bit more expensive but not far outside that range you mention.
Be aware that many people are moving here (and especially Denver) and the local govt has kept housing very tight. Some of that's been good (keep building from getting out of hand) and some of it bad (hard to find a place to rent at a reasonable price). You get a great mix of politics out this way compared to the South. There's a lot of conservatives here and a good bit of libs here as well. Everyone seems to be civil except during election years and is just live and let live for the most part.
Jobs are hard to come by here. Lucky for me I work in IT and work remotely for an office in Atlanta. But, other than those things, I think you'll like it here especially coming from Texas. Hope all goes well for you.
That seems to be a key difference here, there are new home communities EVERYWHERE. And there's a weird hive-mind thing with buyers here in Austin where they want any house to be completely turn-key. It's odd, as it's a sellers market, but loaded with picky buyers.
The job market here is sort of a snapshot of our national economy, the highly educated can pick and choose and employers are asking for the moon (saw a job listing for a writer, who needed to repurpose content for marketing, website, social media purposes and the employer wanted all applicants to have MASTERS Degrees... really?) I've been writing professionally for well over a decade and don't have a single peer with a Masters. Meanwhile, those of us with lesser degrees/certifications/etc (or no degrees at all) may job hunt for extended periods of time.
1) When we first visited back in 2004, everywhere we went people chit-chatted about traffic tickets "I got pulled over yesterday" - "Oh, I've gone three weeks now without a ticket." When we enquired we were told the local police are insanely overzealous about dolling out tickets for everything from going 1 mile over the speed limit, to failure to use turn signals, to failure to yield when merging onto the freeway. Is that still the case?
2) What are the flourishing job markets? If any. I read somewhere recently that aerospace tech was growing there, but are there also needs for less exotic things like accountants, mechanics, office managers, writers, etc?
3) From what I can tell online, the city's expansion appears to be moving East for the most part, I'm assuming due to the mountains on the west. Is that becoming a more sought after area or more of a sprawl sort of thing?
I don't think that the cops are overzealous- I do remember that time, though, about ten years ago. Of course I do not drive horrendously so I may not be a good person to ask.
#3- Going east is definitely a sprawl thing. I can't tell you the number of people who live out East who wish they had chosen to live downtown or on the West side. It is cheaper to live out East. Land is cheap. IF you want to move closer to the mountains, it will be more expensive. Location, location, location.
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We've always dreamed of finding one of those and modernizing it bells & whistles-wise.
